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I have had this idea in my head for a while…back when i had many more dvds than i do now. I am interested in the actual original release date for a film… it’s as good a date as any to rewatch a film. NOTE: I shelve my movies chronologically to begin with. but pushing that extra step amuses me. IF available you CAN find the original release dates on IMDB and Wikipedia.com, but as both sites offer you movies by the year of release neither offers any finer filtering. I think IMDB USED to but manages to obfuscate it, so that you can see who was born and died on any given date but not which films came out on that date. Wikipedia does some really interesting stuff with their ‘Events On this Date‘ listings but not alas the movies released.

I was having an off day and needed something mindless to work on so after all those years of wishing it existed I spent a few hours throwing stuff at a google calendar to make them stick. Movie Premiere Google Calendar is now public even though it only has a tiny number of films on it. Basically it will send me a message everyday telling me what films came out and if i get stuck for something to watch I can call up one of them on either a streaming site or more than likely from the discs i still own. I think i have sold off as many as I feel comfortable parting with. Streaming is nice and lazy but they don’t have any bonus features or alt commentaries and well i have a lot of stuff that won’t be streaming any time soon.

The basic premise of the Google Calendar is useful even if you aren’t using it for stupid shit like this. I have a calendar set up for each non profit I am involved with and they send me emails and text message reminders. I really do love the one i set up with all the journal entries from the IFTTT.com triggers. I no longer have to remember when i posted something and to where, anything posted to twitter, facebook, flickr, or tumbler ends up there including stuff i flag from Google Reader. one stop shopping for my forgetful mind..did you remember you can search through your calendars? and everyone elses..that’s why i know that no one else has set up a movie premiere calendar yet.

SO i started buying myself Birthday/Christmas gifts…i wouldn’t say it was earlier than other years..i am just not rationalizing it as much as other years. YES i wanted that wallety thing…and yes i wanted this Iphone accessory Blue Microphone’s Mikey 2. I have wanted it for about 6 months but i couldn’t rationalize it, i didn’t have any plans to make any recordings more complicated than the ones the iphone can do now. But I have new Years plans with a buddy of mine to do some mischievous local podcasts and well it IS i can spend that for gas just doing dump runs. When it gets here i will have to start doping out all the rules for getting podcasts from the phone to the internet, so that should be interesting as all get out. Don’t worry there are still a lot of Iphone accessories i don’t have..there’s a sphygmomanometer one out there too.

ed. turns out that all the descriptions of this item fail to list WHICH iphones it fits on and which it doesn’t. it didn’t fit on mine. i’m bumming…i wanted it. but i have an eye on a different one, stay tuned.

I am outting my new project…i am deep enough into it to know there is no danger of anyone else stealing the idea..it’s too fucking complex for a sane person to take on. I am working on a Directory of NH Rail Trails, your brain..even my brain said..well all that information is on the internet right? well sort of kinda of almost.. It’s taken me about 30 hours to collate just a LIST..just a list mind you of municipalities containing trail segments, that’s not even collating all the start and end points, parking, access and trail advocate contact info..so as you can see, i’m not worried that someone will beat me to it. Most of my contacts inside the universe of NH Rail Trails are waiting patiently for me to finish my work. Everyone has SOME information, and the information floating around the internet is derivative from an incomplete database. Lucky for everyone involved my boss is paying me to do it. It started with a week of brain work trying to wrap my head around how the data set should be collected , sorted and then formatted. I can now see it in my head, and I’m pretty right with it. Now I can hear you say aren’t OFFline references outdated? well perhaps…so this reference work will be available in a few different e-versions, Kindle, Epub, PDF etc and a POD paper version that will be updated constantly. i’m haven’t gotten right with the idea of making it an active online website..just yet because then it will suffer the same fate as the ones already online, derivative extracts will be stolen and replicated all over the net but because they are not being constantly updated they will all contain varying amounts of inaccurate data. As it stands I still need to work out how a map will be integrated with my directory. Baby steps. First define the scope of the data, collate and produce what i have, then wait for everyone to send me corrections and call me an idiot. so far so good.

I ordered my 1st Cardstore.com card… that wasn’t coming to myself. I had a meeting with a local muckity muck that i want to stay in good with. His office happens to have THIS view from one my better photos. So, I went to CardStore.com and ordered a thank-you-for-the-meeting-card-hope-we-can-do-it-again-sometime card using this image. It was SO worth the $2.99.

On another front, the Click2mail.com card finally arrived..better late than never. It took 12 days and cost $2.24…i am not over the moon about the obverse graphics. But on the whole the post card quality was good. I think I may try Cardstore.com’s postcard and then i will have several to compare. Each site has its strength and i think Click2mail’s is with BULK mailing, sending 1 card isn’t their bag. wherease Cardstore is a little more personalized.

I have been fiddling with a couple of winter projects that will have more obvious need in the future.

i adore tools and kits..big surprise huh? i already put together a graffiti removal kit in a bucket for those odd occasions when i spy something in town that is pissing me off. I have used it a couple of times on graffiti on granite blocks and stickers on street signs. I do expect it to be in constant use along the rail trail once it gets more popular.

Taking my obsessive compulsiveness a little further.. you can see that the graffiti bucket is green…(walmart $3) I have a trash removal bucket which is black and a blue one I use for boating tools like ropes and anchors…etc… I had already been planning a bucket for my emergency items, flash light, batteries etc… but i had yet to find a red bucket available anywhere. So you can imagine the temptation of COLORED BUCKETS would have on me. yeah….i’m going there….or i will once i figure out the perfect pannier adapter method.

My first attempt at a pannier hack of a cat litter bucket…the guy upstairs uses this brand which i like because the lid is hinged already. This one is to carry tools and trashbags and such, however i still need to work on the bungee hack. it needs to be firmly hooked to the bottom and not rattle when being ridden. very important not to rattle. I used rope hooks and neoprene washers and some cap nuts on the inside but i think i will swap out the skinny bungees for a tie down strap and wrap the crown bolt with rubber hose. but this is on the first one I managed to do.

I have my eye on a green bucket from Affordable, so that i can have one pannier with graffiti removal tools and the other pannier holding trash bags. Mind you they also vend Red square buckets..i may yet get my emergency response kit in a bucket..yeah i know you can buy a ready MADE kit…but where is the fun in that?

BTW if you have ever wondered how to get the labelling off one of these buckets without dissolving the plastic? Try MEK, Methyl Ethyl Ketone..lovely nasty stuff from the harware store.

still playing with my new toy IFTTT.com …. if i can keep track of all the connections i have linked up…i am sending facebook posts to twitter and twitter posts and flickr pictures to tumbler. All of those and foursquare check ins to Google Calendar, where if you format it right you can print the lot of them out as a journal entry. Not that i have many reasons to track the nonsense i do on a day like today, but on other days when i am trying to track my work product so i can parse my day into billable portions. i like gadgets and widgets…you never know what you cn do with them.

Check this out…..i open the box from amazon today…which contains…a zombie killing tool and 6 pairs of socks…and which item is bearing a warning label? That just broke me up.

The Fiskars 7860 Brush Axe which i warned you i was buying, plus my first installment of new socks – which oddly took LONGER to pick out than the Brush Axe did. Apparently the socks i was..were…USED to buy have been outsourced and are no longer of the same quality. So after reading the reviews for like 3 or 4 different brands of similar socks I chose the Champion Ankle pack of 6. One would have assumed that the quality would have been all about the same, but apparently not. About 20 years ago, I discovered the joy of never matching socks again. Simply choose some socks you like…and then throw away all your others. I am ready for another sock purge because the last batch of a dozen socks were not up to par. I still need to buy another 6 or 12, over the next few months. but then they all get tossed in drawer and every sock will match every other sock, cept for the rag woolen ones which only match each other. What can i say? . . . i am saving years of my life that i would have spent matching up clean socks.

BTW i immediately put that dangerous plastic bag in the dumpster, and took my brush axe into the bathroom with me.

You realize that the only reason i am still blogging is as an outlet for my variation of OCD right? I get fixated on something and have to draw a line under it before i can move ahead, regardless of how much undone work i have at hand. – (i just cut out 2 paragraphs itemizing all the things i haven’t accomplished – it just made me more depressed)

So i was researching graffiti removal kits..there seem to be two kinds…well three..you can buy ‘kits’ from graffiti removal product vendors, which is just a selection of their products, some towns with more ambition than mine hand kits out to residents with a problem, usually containing 1 spray removal product, rags, brush and a coupon for discount paint..and then there are those obsessive compulsives…..like me. this guy from Philadelphia is my new personal hero.Look at that- an entire trunkfull of graffiti asskicking weaponry.

I had to go to Walmart to get cat food and Home Depot to get ‘stuff’ so i drop some money that should have gone to paying a bill or two on making a kit i can keep in the truck. (I DO have my eye on a mailbox in town with a tag on it, i just have to remember which one it is.)

Green Bucket – $4 walmart. Home Depot had white and orange. i thought green was nicer. walmart also had blue.Black bucket cover. $1.50 – home depot, this cover goes on and off without taking your finger nails or needing tools. love it. I have my eye on a few more for the other buckets in my life.Rags. $2 home depot, yeah i have more rags in my life to add to it. but i figured i’d start with some fresh ones.Stanley Scrub brushes – $4.50 Walmart. very stiff brushes, we have a lot of Granite walls in town – i am surprised we dont have more tagging. I adore the large one the handle is solid, all my other ones are the other kind.Stanley Flexible scraper $3 walmart, stickers. we have a lot bigger sticker problem here. stores hand them out and kids spread the love.Spray bottles$2 Home depot, one has water for washing the surface after cleaning.Mineral spirits $3 I put it in the spray bottle, it helps with the sticker removal and washing the surface after you clean off the graffiti.Goof Off spray solvent graffiti remover$7 Home Depot, It was the only solvent based one they had on the shelf. but from the look of what’s in that guys trunk, i may have to get another bucket.NonSolvent graffiti remover $5 walmart, home depot had one too. the nonsolvent ones seem to be popular, i don’t know how efficient they are..yet. But i’d rather have a selection.
Not pictures are some heavy duty gloves that i already keep handy.

there are some stickers and spray paint out on the rail trail where i am going to take this kit for a walkabout next time i get 5 minutes free. But i just wasted my last free 5 minutes here talking to you.

I was trying to explain this to a friend of mine..perhaps it is a personal opinion, perhaps it is something a lot of people think but haven’t attached a name to, but there are some books in some editions which feel inexplicably good to the touch.

Just a quick image of one part of one shelf in my room with well worn copies i would never replace with other editions, nevermind an Ebook version. There is something about a well worn paperback that feels good between the fingers. There are even some hardcover editions that just ‘feel right’ come on…shouldn’t beowulf or basically anything written in a dead language only be read in a blue cloth hardback from Oxford U?

Of my favorite books I have many copies..even if i go out of my way to buy a first edition, that may not be my FAVORITE edition of said book. Das Boot by Bucheim i have many copies and editions..but for some reason my favorite is the well worn paperback with the curved spine. I can’t say that the above Avon paperback of Dracula is my favorite edition of that book, even though it has marvelous biblio-umami, my favorite copy to revisit is the Modern library copy with the green face dust jacket. My favorite copy of Moby Dick is not the fat Random House Rockwell Kent that i have on the shelf..but the little bitty Oxford Classic edition that i rebound in blue cloth – add a little gilt lettering and it could be mistaken for a bible.

There are definitely some editions that are nicer to hold than others. Ebooks on any device may be nice to read on the go, such as newsmedia, text books, reference books etc..but they will never replace the tactile experience of reading.